Sony currently owns the rights to Spider-Man and has made it clear that they have no intentions of allowing the rights to revert back to Disney. That is why The Amazing Spider-Man happened such a short time after Sam Raimi’s trilogy ended. However, fans are still hopeful that Peter Parker could make his way into the Marvel cinematic universe at some point and the good news is, there is a small chance of it happening.

Though Marvel Studios could not release a film starring Spider-Man, Sony gave up all TV rights to the character back in 2009 which means that Disney can use him if they please. The deal was not just for animated TV but live action as well.

There were rumors that Disney was going to include Spider-Man on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, but that hasn’t materialized and isn’t likely to. The more likely option is that Disney would include the character in one of the upcoming Marvel Netflix series currently in development.

Disney would not be able to use Andrew Garfield’s version of the character, at least not in this scenario.

The other possibility has been alluded to several times over the past couple years and that is a Marvel Studios/Sony crossover. This may never happen, but the idea has been seriously considered to the point that Sony and Marvel almost struck a deal to have an Oscorp tower in The Avengers movie.

Also, in a recent interview for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the cast and crew were asked if they would like to see a crossover and it was a unanimous yes. The films stars Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx and even director Marc Webb were in favor.

“I think everyone would love to see that,” Garfield said. “The thing is that I would love that, the fans would love that. Obviously, big business and lawyers and rights issues are an obstacle. In my naivete I’m all ‘let’s put all that aside and just do it!’.”

Nobody from Disney has said anything to imply that they are intending to include Spider-Man in an upcoming project, but the possibility does still very much exist.